(Untitled)

[gabriel_tam]

Everything about the opening ceremonies for the new Family and Life Support Center is tastefully coordinated in order to appeal to a wide variety of supporters and clientele both

Comments

[walk_ins]

Bajian Li is swearing furiously under his breath as he and the rest of the team strain to hear what's going on, navigating through the unnatural darkness by kinesthetic sense, sound, and sheer determination.

But it's the strange fiery flickers from the stage which give him the clue he needs, at last.

A few more desperate seconds, and then--

Light.

Magnesium hisses as Li lights the first flare, sending an arc of harsh, spitting white fire from his hand. He throws it into the aisle, already lighting a second, then a third, while the lieutenant beside him screams,

"We have visual, we have visual-- the Senator's down! Repeat, Tam is down-- go, go, go!"

[un_fallen]

Raguel laughs. Long and loudly. He reaches out for the door - and Crowley - sees the flames on his hands, and drops his arms again.

"Crowley. Let me finish what I started. Quick and easy."

He looks grimly at his hands as the fire fades away.

"Or not so quick."

[aj_crawley]

"No."

Moving awkwardly, Crowley reaches behind himself - hisses, at the way the movement bunches and stretches the skin of his shoulders.

He tugs at something tucked into the back of his belt, and when his hand comes back into view, one finger is hooked clumsily through the trigger-loop of a small water pistol.

"You said it yourself," Crowley says, looking up at Raguel.

He takes the pistol in the flat of his other hand, hefting it gently before putting it to one side.

"Selves change."

[un_fallen]

He looks warily at the pistol, then back at Crowley.

"Maybe. But two years is not a very long time," he points out. "Even for them."

His gaze drifts to the door behind Crowley and then, slowly, back to the pistol.

"How convinced are you?" he asks, shifting to the balls of his feet.

"Come to think of it, what makes you think I've changed enough that I don't grab that thing and shove right past you? Maybe you need it."

[aj_crawley]

"I'm convinced enough," Crowley says quietly, and he could be replying to anything.

And then, separately;

"He spoke with Aziraphael."

[un_fallen]

Slowly, slowly, he shifts his weight away from 'halfway to the door' and is once again just standing in a storage room.

"I think you're too trusting," he says, but without much conviction.

"What did Aziraphael make of him?"

[aj_crawley]

With the room to do it, Crowley hoists himself to his feet, pushing his knuckles against the floor rather than the flat of his hands.

He leaves the discarded pistol on the ground.

"I trust who I trust," he says. "Aziraphael... Aziraphael found him vain, overly concerned with his status and the public opinion of himself, and to have been willingly blind. Aziraphael found him a politician and a businessman, and that's what he is."

Crowley's gaze wanders past Raguel, drifting over the flotsam of the stage, the elements of show stashed away and left to gather dust, before looking back.

"But Aziraphael also told me his repentance was genuine. And that, in the same situation, he wouldn't do the same thing again."

[un_fallen]

Raguel looks at the gun on the ground. Or maybe just at the ground; it's hard to tell.

"Okay," he says, sounding disappointed. "Two opinions. Independent confirmation, and all."

He's watched Crowley getting up, but something seems to register with him in a rush.

"What happened to your hands?"

[aj_crawley]

"Oh," Crowley says, and holds them up, slightly sheepish. "You were about to light up the hall like a... bright thing. That would've been hard to explain."

[un_fallen]

"Oh," he says, "damn. Didn't realize, or I'd have paid more attention to the wolf."

He steps around toward the door, giving the water pistol a wide berth.

"You could always say there was a power surge," he suggests. "I've used that one before. Didn't believe me, so I made a power surge. Like a charm."

[aj_crawley]

Crowley immediately whirls and plants himself once more between Raguel and the door.

"I've your word, now?" he asks. "That you'll leave Senator Tam be?"

[un_fallen]

"There you go again, trusting my word," he says, exasperated.

"Yeah, fine. Long as he doesn't do anything else stupid." His expression hardens.

"I make no promises about the wolf, though. Think I've met him before."

[aj_crawley]

Crowley's lips thin into a hard line, and he's silent for a moment - thinking it over.

"I'd prefer you didn't, personally," he says finally. "It'd only cause more hassle."

"But he did, you know, tear your throat out."

[un_fallen]

"Yeah, I noticed that," he says, without irony.

"And burned your hands by extension, I'd say. It's only fair."

The old gleam is starting to resurface in Raguel's eyes. It's good to have a target.

[aj_crawley]

"Just," Crowley sighs. "If I can't talk you out of it, at least make it discreet, alright?"

[un_fallen]

"I am always discreet," he insists.